This new format is a sad joke ! Imagine how good the old format would have been at Menangle with all heats and final over the mile ! Could have been a speed explosion !
It's nothing like the ID of old and should be renamed. If they are going to run only 1 round of heats and then the final, Have 2 Heats in Victoria and 2 Heats at Menangle over a similar distance and make the Kiwi's come here to qualify. I'm a big fan of both Terror to Love and Smolda but the NZ heat was a joke last night. Apart from the winner in the QLD heat, The rest are average. I thought that WA's heat was reasonably strong but they should be in the same boat as the Kiwi's and come across if they want to compete. Honestly, This current format is all over the shop IMHO.
This new format is a sad joke ! Imagine how good the old format would have been at Menangle with all heats and final over the mile ! Could have been a speed explosion !
Don't die wondering !
That would be a pretty good option as that's what Menangle is all about, Speed and fast times and maybe it could be called, THE SPEED EXPLOSION. The amenities look pretty good at Menangle now with plenty of room right next to the track and no problems for the horses to go out and work in between the heats and finals but to bring things onto a level playing field, Make all the horses race at Menangle and not all over the shop.
Hi Greg
Over 12 months ago I mentioned on another thread about how all horses have to come here to qualify for the MM as they want to showcase Menangle, then to run the Inter as this format they have is a ........ joke. To be honest all they have done is contradicted themselves as one minute they want them here and then next they give away heats to other states. They go on how they have spent so much money on Menangle getting it up to world class facilities well why don't they use it. Now if they turn around and say they have positive feed back about this format I would say open your eye's as I havn't seen a positive written anywhere. As for the racing I didn't think it was that exciting, they should of raced over the same distance and to be honest I thought the QLD heat was more like a FFA. The old format showed not just how good you had to be to get into the final but showed how good trainers had to be to manage there horses. Fingers crossed that next year is the last time Menangle have the Inter unless it reverts back to the way it should be.
Hi Dallas, JD contradicted himself last night, The QLD winner Forever Gold is a mare and he said The Ladyship is not an option for her and she should have been here to compete in the Qualifiers. I would have no problems with that if it was the same for all the big races, MM, Inter, Ladyship etc. The beauty about the MM was that everybody knew that they had to compete in certain races, Newcastle Mile etc and that was great and now they are running qualifiers all over the shop for the Inter which really seems like a contradiction.
Hi Richard
As good as mare that Forever Gold is she would of been more suited to a Ladyship mile than a 3000m Inter, in saying that she has an invite and I can understand why the connections will head to the Inter as it's a race everyone wants to be in and I wish the connections all the best. Do they have the powers to give a mare a wild card for the Ladyship as I'm not sure on the race conditions. Also I don't think Forever Gold has raced beyond 2138m.
Might have to get Adam Fairley to give us a ruling on that but from what JD said last night, Forever Gold will have to run in the Interdom. It's pretty rare for a mare to make the Interdom final these days and it certainly would look good on her Broodmare resume.
The owners of FG have said that they do wish to go in the ID, so there is no issue